for solo piano and digital acoustics
Sleep Strand says “We sleep to reverse the progress of our lives.” I have imagined music that explores the resonance of sleep through an unwinding process of motives and phrases. The Soprano floats in her melodic thread, spiraling through a world that is universally connected to sleep. The piano navigates these realms with harmonic constellations, slipping into the occasional dream sequence. The Room Three dark, compressed sonorities are unbundled and displayed in the piano writing. I have explored various shadow elements of each and recorded them digitally. The digital versions of the piano allow fantastic and extreme versions of these shadow sounds. The resulting aural landscape frames the transparent voice of the soprano’s “death by day break, death by night fall.”
Text by Mark Strand
Premiered on Live from WFMT in Chicago, April 28th, 2008
William Neil, piano & Mark Strand narrating
Audio from the premiere
Sleep &
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The Room
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Excerpt from score
“Sleep”
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